(a) Field of the Invention
An apparatus for spraying a spray material using ultrasonic vibration is provided.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Pharmaceutical drugs used to treat patients need to be produced under a clean environment in order to ensure safety. In particular, an injection contaminated by microorganisms or the like may have a fatal side effect on human bodies. Thus, all processes for producing the injection needs to be carried out in an aseptic state. To maintain the aseptic state when the injection is produced, a process of sterilizing all machines, which are likely to come into contact with the products, needs to be carried out prior to other processes. Further, the aseptic state needs to be maintained to perform a process of producing the injection. As sterilization methods generally used for a process of producing pharmaceutical drugs, there are a high-temperature dry heat sterilization method and a high-pressure steam sterilization method.
A sustained-release microsphere injection is generally manufactured as a biodegradable polymer microsphere dosage form containing active materials through a process such as a spray drying method, an O/W emulsion method, a W/O/W emulsion method, or a phase separation method.
When the sustained-release microsphere injection is produced through the spray drying method, a solution, emulsion, suspension, or the like, which contains active materials and biodegradable polymers, may be sprayed in the form of fine droplets into a dryer by means of an ultrasonic atomizer.
The ultrasonic atomizer is an apparatus that converts electrical energy into vibrational energy and provides a spray material with ultrasonic vibration having an output frequency, thereby spraying the spray material. In a case in which the spray material is sprayed by using ultrasonic waves, there are advantages in that the droplets have uniform diameters and excellent and silent atomization. The ultrasonic atomizer may save energy and prevent pollution, and may be used even at a location where a flow velocity is low and at a location where a supply flow rate is low. The ultrasonic atomizer may be applicable in various industrial fields such as a process of manufacturing a semiconductor, and fuel combustion, in addition to the process of manufacturing the sustained-release microspheres.
However, in a case in which an ultrasonic element of the ultrasonic atomizer is exposed to a high temperature, the high temperature may have an effect on an ultrasonic vibration generating unit, such that the ultrasonic vibration generating unit may deteriorate. Therefore, it is important to maintain a constant temperature of the ultrasonic vibration generating unit. In the related art, because of these characteristics, the ultrasonic atomizer is sterilized in a high-pressure steam sterilizer, and then mounted in a sterilized spray dryer, and then the spray drying process is carried out. However, because of the work for separately sterilizing respective apparatuses and then mounting the ultrasonic atomizer in the spray dryer, the sterilized spray dryer and the sterilized ultrasonic atomizer may be contaminated again. To solve the above problems, a method capable of protecting the ultrasonic element is required when the spray dryer is sterilized through the high-temperature dry heat sterilization method in a state in which the ultrasonic atomizer is mounted in the spray dryer.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.